Victory in Colorado: State Court Allows Legal Challenge to Forced Parental Involvement for Young People Seeking an Abortion to Proceed

08.20.26– (PRESS RELEASE) Earlier this week a state court allowed the legal challenge to a Colorado measure that forces young people to notify a parent before they can obtain an abortion to proceed.  In most cases, the measure withholds abortion care from young people for at least 48 hours after a parent has been notified; it also fails to account for the personal circumstances of individual young people.

“No one should be forced to remain pregnant, give birth, and become a parent against their will,” said Rupali Sharma, Co-Director, Litigation at the Lawyering Project.  “Colorado’s constitution protects the right to abortion regardless of age and this ruling means the work to ensure young people can get critical, time-sensitive health care will continue.”

Every major medical organization whose members provide adolescent or reproductive healthcare, including the American Medical Association, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, opposes forced parental involvement laws because they hurt rather than protect young people and their families.

Most young people willingly involve a parent in their pregnancy decision.  Young people who do not do so typically have unavailable, incapacitated, abusive, or unsupportive parents. That includes parents who are likely to physically harm or emotionally alienate them, kick them out of their home, or coerce them into carrying to term upon learning that they intend to obtain an abortion. Colorado’s Parental Notice Requirement leaves the young people facing these circumstances with no choice but to petition a judge for permission to end their pregnancy.

Dr. Rebecca Cohen – a Colorado physician – is the plaintiff in the legal challenge and is represented by the Lawyering Project and Morrison Foerster.  The Lawyering Project also represents trusted adults in Idaho who are challenging laws that restrict young people’s access to abortion.

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